Thirteen
by catchmeonfiree
Summary: AU: Dorkerella is still waiting for Prince Charming to sweep her off her feet. Until then, she'll just conquer the quests of middle school herself. Please review, munchkins! Thanks! ;3
1. Dorkerella

A/N: _Hey ya boiz and gurlz. Jest keeding. I've had this AU in my head for a long time and you should know that it takes place in the present and now it's time for it to COME ALIVE. But fret you shan't children because I'm not quitting 'These Four Walls'. KTHNXBAI_

^.^

She sees him behind a stack of watermelons at a Whole Foods. He's with his mom, looking at a bag of flax seeds, deciding whether to buy only one bag or the fabulous deal of buy 2 get 1 free. They decide to go with one because who can eat 3 bags of flax seeds?

It's mid January and there's no snow outside. That's strange during this time of year in Lima. He's wearing a black and blue striped sweater, which is something weird for jocks to wear. She knows that he's a football and lacrosse player; football season just ended in the fall, and lacrosse season is coming up, which means he'll get to feel free again.

She thinks that she's never fallen in deeper love. He's so perfect. He's got this perfect blonde Bieber hair and perfect body and a great sense of fashion. He's like one of those cute Tumblr boys online, but the only difference is, she knows this one in real life, which is a good difference.

But she's not exactly like all those other girls at Oakley Middle School. She doesn't have the hot bikini girl look, or manicured nails and flowing locks. No. Quinn Fabray has some more weight than the other girls. Her blonde hair doesn't go down in a waterfall. And she would never want to put a bikini on.

But, she has some good features, she thinks. Her hair _is _a pretty color, and her body isn't _that _fat. She fits beautifully in a medium sized dress from Forever 21 or skinny jeans from Hollister, it just takes slight squeezing, and only little effort, she swears. And people always say that she has perfect eyes. Everyone does. Even the popular girls on Facebook like her profile pictures and comment saying that her eyes look "really prettyy". Plus, she's always thought that she's had nice teeth. Who can blame her? Her father Russell is an amazing dentist whose salary is more than two regular families combined. And that's another thing; her family is rich as hell. They don't abuse anything, though. They live like any other family would... sometimes.

Her iPhone 4S rings with a text from her mom Judy telling her to meet her and Russell in the aisle where they sell okra. That means she'll get to pass Sam on her way. Cha-ching! She steps out of her watermelon hiding place, putting her phone in the back pocket of her jeans, and getting off of the watermelon she was leaning on, when all of a sudden, a watermelon falls from the top and explodes, splattering her entire front side.

And Sam Evans saw it happen.

She feels like a complete fool. How could this happen right now, at this moment? It is an absolute embarrassment. _She's _an absolute embarrassment. And it was so loud. Everyone could hear it, even her parents, who are now next to Sam and his mom, watching, just like everyone else.

"A little help here?" she asks, and her parents let go of their shopping cart, brushing watermelon chunks off her shirt. There's a "Clean up at the watermelons" above them in the loud speakers and someone immediately comes over, helping Quinn from the mess she's caused. What's a surprise is that her backside is basically untouched. Her parents rush over to the employee.

"We're so sorry for the mess. We'll pay for the watermelon," they say. Judy's fishing into her purse for a ten and Russell's ready to take the money and hand it to them.

"It's OK," the 20 year old says, pushing his mop through the juices of the watermelon.

"We insist," they respond. Quinn rolls her eyes at how ridiculous this is getting.

"Fine," he says, "Just pay at the cashiers," and he resumes mopping.

"Of course, thank you, sir!" and they rush over to pay whatever damage their daughter's cost... just like any other day.

She's given a towel to wipe off anything dirty when she catches Sam's eyes. It's only for a microsecond, and she quickly looks away afterwards. _She's so embarrassed. _Nothing like this could have happened to any other girl, or just any other person. _Can this not happen?_, she thinks. It's total failure for her. The first time they make eye contact, she's covered in sweet residue.

Her parents come back to her with their hands full of groceries. "Come on, sweetie," her mom says, pulling her away from the scene. "Let's go."

…...

"But I don't want to," she whines to her older brother Grant. She's in his room while her older sister Frannie and parents sleep soundly in their rooms. It's midnight in February and the day before she has to go back to school from break.

"Well you have to," he responds. Grant isn't much help. She's always thought that he's just a stupid Boston College lacrosse player, the one that gets the girls, so why did she even come here in the first place, she thinks. She should've gone to Frannie for this type of school stuff, since she's not in college yet. _One more year though_, she thinks.

"Never mind," she says, and walks out of her brother's room.

She wanders down the hall, slipping and sliding on the long carpet spread across the wooden floor boards. She opens the door to her bedroom, plopping down in front of her vanity. She makes sure that her door is closed and her windows are shut before grabbing the new MacBook Pro her parents got her for her birthday. _They always do that_, she thinks, _keeping everything safe with money. _She quickly opens iTunes and starts belting out a Taylor Swift classic in front of her mirror with her hairbrush as a microphone, although she's one hundred percent sure Sam isn't looking through his window at her like Lucas was with Taylor.

She has her playlist on all throughout the night, falling asleep into it. In the morning, she wakes up to find it blaring 'Call Me Maybe' and decides to brush her teeth to it, dancing around like a fool. After she's done getting ready, she stuffs a couple of books into her backpack, a clean cut black North Face. Yet another thing her parents bought her.

She races down the stairs to find only Frannie in the kitchen eating an omelet and watching an early rerun of 'Drake and Josh'. It's her second favorite episode, the Peruvian Puff Pepper, right after the Christmas special. She reaches inside the fridge for milk and quickly grabs Cap'n Crunch off the shelf, pouring herself a generous bowl.

Breakfast is silent and Frannie doesn't seem to be wanting to spark up a new conversation anytime soon so she just watches 'Drake and Josh' with her silently, both laughing when Megan says boob and boober.

…...

Quinn steps out from the kitchen with her salad and into the cafeteria, her wandering eyes looking for somewhere to sit. _No bathroom again, please_, she thinks. That was something she hoped would never happen again.

She's pushed aside by the popular group and her salad almost spills to the floor. It's Madison and Lily, two of some of the most popular girls in school. The girls who put up a photo of them in the middle of the road with an ice cream dot on their noses on Facebook and get 10 likes in two minutes, whose first comments are "FIRSTT" and always draw out the last letter of a word.

Quinn fucking hates their guts.

"Oops, sorry, Quinnie," Madison says. The two then giggle to their hearts' content and sit down on the table where they regularly sit, along with all the other popular kids. Quinn sees Sam there.

Oh no. Not Sam. Since the incident at Whole Foods, she has tried everything to avoid him. He's probably already told everybody about it, and Madison and Lily were probably the first ones to know. _I hate him so much_, she thinks, although she knows that the feeling will go away in no time when she sees his face again.

She looks really stupid right now, standing in the middle of the cafeteria with no place to go. Her head perks up when she sees the theatre group sitting near the wall, and thinks that it's either that or the bathroom. She chooses the theatre group.

As she walks near them, she hears the commotion about Oakley's upcoming production of 'Into the Woods' and how Sam Evans got the lead role as the baker. Surprise, surprise. It's not something that amazing; Sam Evans snagging the lead in this year's winter musical. That's captivates her so much. How can someone be this big lacrosse jock while being a really annoying popular kid that she can hate so much to being a part of the theatre nerds to being the most down to earth person. It's mind boggling and it's what draws her so much to him.

Every time she thinks of how special of a person he is, she swears that she loves him. She knows that it's probably not true, and it's also part of testosterone's fault because she knows what true love is; she's watched 'The Notebook' with her mom and Frannie about a million times. _Why can't me and Sam be like Allie and Noah?_ she asks herself. _Oh yeah, it's because I'm me and he's he and we'll never be together. _

She puts her salad down next to Rachel Berry a.k.a the annoying Jew and overhears a snippet about how she's auditioning for the role of the baker's wife in the musical. _The baker's wife?_ she thinks, _Doesn't that mean Sam's wife?_

She figures that she shouldn't be eavesdropping anymore and quietly eats her salad, rereading 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' for the hundredth time. She has science next, and she hates it so much. It's not that Mr. Howard is mean, it's that he's a horrible teacher. He's funny and chill but he cannot teach. She hasn't learned a thing in his class and only keeps a B average, which is bad when you're an honor student.

The kid she sits next to isn't also the coolest person in the world either. His name is Eli, and he's one of those kinds of kids who wear Snapbacks whenever and snap gum in class and think that "they got too much swag". Quinn's best friend Sara sits across from her, so everything isn't all that bad. And Sam sits in Quinn's row, right at the end when she sits right at the front, so their friendship / relationship status hasn't changed much. But it's her first year where she actually has classes with him, and they've actually talked before so it isn't all that bad because now she doesn't have to wait until the next play to be able to see him.

…...

She rushes down to the science room because she's really late now. Mr. Levine let orchestra out late, and then she had to run back because she forgot her practice sheet music on the piano... again.

The door to the science room is closed, and she jiggles it to get it open. When she finally does, it pops open and she sees them lined up against the whiteboard with their backpacks on and binders in their arms. That can only mean one thing... new seats. She feels guilty, but she's so relieved to finally get out of Eli's reach. She also sits with him in history, and that's no fun either, especially when he breathes on her with expanding nostrils and takes her pencil, claiming "I didn't! I didn't!" when, of course, everyone saw that he did.

Half the kids are in their new seats and Sara is still standing up. She shuffles over to her, praying that she'll get to sit next Sara again, even though they already did in first term. She's certain that Sara's hoping for the same thing.

But it doesn't happen. Sara gets partnered with a girl named Abbey and now there's only one table left with only kid. Herself. Mr. Howard puts her there, all by herself, but at least it's the table next to Sara's.

"All set," Mr. Howard states, and he asks them to take out the notes from before vacation about plate tectonics. They get started on Wegner's Theory but it's boring as hell. He's got his slideshow presentation up on the screen and it's so tiny because he puts the projector so close to the board. Quinn's always had an eye for design and wants to do something with graphics when she gets to the high school when the door swings open and Sam Evans strolls in.

"Sam, you're late," Mr. Howard says, and Sam hands him a pass from Ms. Applebaum, the school's chorus teacher. Mr. Howard snatches it from him and takes a quick peek at it before rolling it up into a ball and tossing it into the recycle bin.

"Whoa, new seats," Sam says and Quinn rolls her eyes. _No really, dumb butt? _she thinks. She's so annoyed with him right now.

"Yeah, and you'll be sitting next to Quinn for the last term," says Mr. Howard, pointing to his new seat next to her.

Holy crap.

^.^

_OK, yes, this is basically my life, that's why I've got so much to write about. All these people are real, but I've just changed their names, keeping the first letter of each one. Don't get on my chiz about this, ehkay? Yes, I am a loser in life. Please review, because it makes me really happy and I actually do update faster and I want to continue this story all the way to the end! Thanks, and please review! You're all awesome! ;3_


	2. Crush

A/N: _Thanks for all the reviews, guys! Glad to know that you like my life c; Jest keeding. But really, thanks for all the sweet comments! Sam's not in too much of this, but he will next chapter. And apologies for the length; it's not very long... hehe(; Please review at the end of this chapter too because it's like 5 hour energy; IT KEEPS ME GOING' …... kthnxbai mwah SMOOCHES  
_

^.^

"_Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?_", or so Queen sings. This is a dream. This is a dream. There's no way in hell that this can be happening. Sam Evans is going to her lab partner. This is amazing! Now, he's going to be forced to talk to her, and she can talk to him about whatever she wants, not just about pyroclastic flows or viscosity, which is quite creepy, but still! She has Sam Evans all to herself for 45 minutes every day, five days a week and for another 16 weeks until the school year ends and everyone goes up to the brand new high school, the biggest one in Ohio, where she'll probably never see his face again.

Wow.

Her mind pops back into the real world when she hears the familiar sound of a chair being pulled.

"High five," Sam says, as he sits into his chair, plopping his backpack onto the ground, but his hand is showing a fist bump.

"Um, that's actually a fist bump," she says, pointing to his hand. His face reddens and he gives her a goofy smile as his long fingers extend to a point where she can gently slap her hand against his own.

Mr. Howard gets back into how Creationists were totally against the idea of Wegner's Theory and the class starts dragging their pencils across sheets of paper again. Her body is tense now, and it started happening when he sat down next to her. It's weird, and she's never felt it before. She finds herself straightening her back and wanting to make her thighs seem skinnier. She fixes her hair from time to time and smiles brightly whenever Mr. Howard makes a joke.

She feels a tap on her shoulder and turns to Sam. "Can I borrow a piece a paper?" he asks, and she nods, although he's technically just asking for a piece of paper to write his notes down since he'll never return that piece of paper. Afterwards, he'll probably just toss it into the recycling bin. He's only bothering to write anything down now just to give Mr. Howard the satisfaction of his class paying attention to something they'll probably never have to repeat again in their lives.

Mr. Howard babbles on and on about everything the class doesn't care about. He has another slideshow on and it's tiny like normal, jam packed with information they can't read.

"Yep," he says, "Better take that down." Goes to the next slide. "That too." Goes to the next slide. "And yeah."

She couldn't have asked for a worse teacher. She really couldn't have.

But then again, Mr. Howard did think that it was destiny for Sam and Quinn to be together, just like her, so maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

…..

It's lunchtime, and it's the lunch that Quinn actually has with Sara. She's been sitting alone at a table eating a sandwich when she sees Sara come out of the kitchen with her food. She waves her arms so that Sara can see, and she does. She comes over, sitting across from her, so that they can both see each other's faces when talking.

Sara drops her bag on the floor and starts putting her mayonnaise all over her hamburger.

Quinn's not the only one who thinks that is disgusting.

"Hey," she says, and Sara answers back with a "Hi." She's really awkward. I mean, _really awkward_. She can't really make a conversation happen, not even with her best friend. She's not only lonely at school, she's also lonely everywhere else she goes.

At volleyball practice, she sits by herself on the bleachers while all the other girls form into groups and talk about what party they're going to next Saturday night. She's never even been to a real boy-girl party, except for a few bat and bar mitzvahs here and there, but those don't really even count since there are parents around.

"So," Sara starts, "Did you watch the 'Pretty Little Liars' finale? I cannot believe that Mona is A."

Personally, she thought that ever since "If These Dolls Could Talk", a five year old could have figured out that Mona was A.

"I'm glad that we got new seats in science. I was getting tired of Anna, and I bet you were with Eli," says Sara, grabbing a tater tot from her tray.

"Yeah, I really was. Eli... is special. And I don't think that I'm fit to handle special," she says, sighing. Eli's not the only special one in school.

"Well, Abbey's cool, I guess. Except when she's being annoying though," says Sara, and gets up to throw her five used packets of mayonnaise away. She also uses them for the fries. Talk about gross.

She, not to be rude, actually really hates Abbey. She really, really does. Abbey is one of those said sorta rich kids who are "spazzy" all the time, doesn't really care about school work, screams in class out of the blue thinking that it's funny, and tries their most hardest to be popular... and also be with a hot guy. She really hates Abbey. In English once, Abbey just got out of their seats while the class was reading 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and basically (tried) to breakdance to the sign out list for her pass to the bathroom.

She hates people like that.

"I don't know," she starts, "I sorta just hate her all the time. She tries so hard." There's a whole list of girls, _and boys_, who are just like Abbey at Oakley and it drives Quinn insane. Not only is Abbey completely stupid, but she's also the kind of kid who gets hot dog juice all over her blouse and has hairy toes with badly painted nails.

It's even worse than Sara putting mayonnaise on her burger.

Quinn can't stand anyone like that. Her family has always been the neat freaks. Even her brother, who washes his uniforms himself and buys the Snuggle White Lilac and Spring Flowers fabric softener every Sunday. One of Quinn's natural instincts is to find a wet paper towel (only Bounty brand) and mop it up as best as she can before grabbing another one for a second time. At least they're freaks together.

"So how's Sam?" asks Sara. How's Sam? Perfect. And beautiful. And gorgeous. And sweet. And nice. And the most wonderful person a dork like her could ever ask for to sit next to her for the last few months of the school year.

"Good." _Nice goin'_, she says to herself.

"Huh. You realize that not only he's the most popular guy in school, but he's also one of the cutes?" Sara asks. Her eyes are begging for an answer to "Do you have a crush on him?"

"Eh, he's sorta cute, but I don't really have a crush on him, though," she says. Pshhhh. Yeah right. She's been in love with him since sixth grade.

Sara stops and thinks for a while before saying, "Do you like him?"

"What do you mean by that?" she asks. "I like him as a lab partner, and sort of as a friend, I guess." _Quit fibbin', you lying beast_, she thinks.

"I don't know... you guys sort of look cute together."

…..

She actually dances all the way home. She's got on her earbuds jammed into her phone, listening to 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody' by Whitney Houston on, her lips syncing to the lyrics. Strangers in cars drive by looking at her like she's mental and one with some high school girls inside honk their horn. Then, she feels embarrassed. But as soon as they're out of sight, she starts poppin' and lockin' again.

She's not the only one who thinks that she and Sam will get married!

OK, that might not be what Sara meant, but still! It's amazing to find out that she's not stupid. It really is.

She walks in through the front door and slams it shut. She goes down the long corridor from their living room to their kitchen and finds her mother fixing herself up a low carb peanut butter and jelly sandwich before jumping up and onto the stairs, skipping all the way to her room.

She's really giddy right now so she dumps her backpack onto her bed before grabbing her laptop to make a whole new playlist on iTunes called "wedding songs for me and sam evans, my husband". No, she's not a loser...

It's chock full of her favorites, like the Taylor Swift classics and the really good songs by Rihanna and Katy Perry. She feels like this should be a CD, so she grabs herself a sheet of blank pink oak tag paper, cutting it so that it can be folded into a pocket and digs out her old crayons from the bottom drawer of her desk and draws a big red heart with the heads of a blonde boy and girl in the middle, titling with the same exact name of the playlist. It really does look like something a kindergartener would draw. She slips a blank disc inside her laptop and waits by eating a cheese stick until it's done burning. She takes a Sharpie out and scribbles hearts and whatnot on it until it's full of frilly and cute designs. She takes the disc out from the laptop and slides it into the cover.

Perfect.

She's admiring her job well done when the door opens and her older sister Frannie is in the doorway.

"Whatcha doin'?" asks Frannie. Her eyebrows are furrowed, and she's slightly annoyed by something that she doesn't know about.

"Uh, nothing," she says, and skillfully slides her CD into her backpack with a slight of hand. She smiles.

"Well, mom and dad have been calling you for dinner for a long time, you'd better hurry, or they'll come up here themselves," says Frannie.

"No problem," she says, "I'll come down with you right now." She hops off her bed and shuts the lights before walking out of her room, holding onto Frannie's arm and dancing around like a fool. A crazy love struck fool.

^.^

_Hehe, yus like I said, I am crazy but I did not go home afterwards to make a CD for me and his' wedding. 8D I have far too much stuff to do than that (; Hehe. Jest keeding. :) But please review because like I said reviews are love to me like motor oil and justice is to transformers so thanksssssssss! :3_


	3. Saturday

A/N: _hey ya guise thanks for reading and reviewing it means so much to me and i feel all fluffy inside and also i'm writing this entire author note with no punctuation and so yeah thanks again you guise you all rock like hannah montana said xoxo _

^.^

The birds outside her window chirp with care; not too loud, and it's very peaceful. The clouds hug the blue sky and the trees dance with the wind. The entire neighborhood is silent and she sleeps alone on her big bed, unresponsive to all her surroundings. That is, until her alarm clock rings.

It's annoying little thing; it buzzes really loud and she finds herself flicking at her ear a lot in the morning. Ugh, waking up at 7am is not fun. Especially not on a Saturday. For volleyball. She should really just use her iPhone as an alarm clock; the Marimba beat isn't that bad compared to the beehive of a clock on her nightstand.

She shuts it off by slapping the top of the clock like it was a bitch who made her boyfriend cheat on her... but Quinn doesn't even have a boyfriend, never has had a boyfriend, and hasn't even kissed a boy yet. Yay.

Groaning, she makes her way to the bathroom and does all her morning activities to get ready for the day and slaves back to her room and gather her things. She has to be at the gym by 8 o'clock sharp.

Making her way downstairs, she sees her brother Grant in the den watching Spongebob. Seriously? She hopes he doesn't see her staring, and it's a good thing that she's using the back staircase that goes into the kitchen, or else he could have killed her.

As she silently shuts the door from the kitchen, she slightly opens the kitchen wall window, which goes through the dining room, whose wall window is open at full length. She pours herself a generous bowl of Lucky Charms and grabs a granola bar, watching Grant. He's watching one of her favorite episodes; one of the really old ones. It's the episode where Sandy dares the entire gang to go out of the water, and she's surprised that she still remembers all of their names. He laughs the same time that she quietly giggles, only so that he won't catch her.

When the seagulls are chasing them around the exotic island, it's the signal that episode has ended but Grant sticks around to see what's next. Apparently, it's 'the Fairly OddParents' and it's the episode where Timmy keeps on asking for more dads. She hears Grant shuffle in his seat and then gets up. He puts his bowl of whatever it is on the coffee table and shouts, "Quinn? Are you up yet? I need to drive you to practice and I haven't got all day!"

Damn. She forgot. He's driving her. Damnit. She can't let him know that she was watching him watch Spongebob. She can't blow off her ride. Both her parents are at work and Frannie left for her book club or whatever. Ugh, what to do now. Escape? Naw. Run back upstairs? Sure.

She sets her bowl down quietly on the counter and makes a run for it. And like she predicted... fail. His ears are like a dog's, and he bolts up the stairs from the den. She keeps climbing and thinks she's safe because she so close to her room but then she sees Grant on the other side of the hall with a wild look in his eyes.

"Get here!" he says, running towards her. It's a wonder the carpet hasn't started worming up yet.

She jumps back onto the stairs and sprints down, but he's catching up fast. She races through the kitchen, slamming the door into the wall, nearly hitting him in the face and reaches the living room, but not fast enough for her to get back on the stairs to go back to her room. He catches her in his arms and throws her down into the couch, his breathing is deep and the muscles in his arms are bulging.

"You don't tell anyone, alright?" he says. His voice is strong and powerful, but he would never hurt a fly. She nods and he lets go. "Then let's go, you little chicken."

The two make their way to the door and get their shoes on. He takes her bag for her but she insists on hauling it herself, and Grant being the gentleman he is, gives to her. They walk across the lawn and into the driveway, their footsteps in the direction to the Prius parked inside the garage.

"You won't tell anyone, right?"

"Yeah."

"You promise?"

"I do."

"You'd better."

"No worries."

…..

The door to the locker room slams open with the touch of a finger and she slugs her way to her locker. It's absolutely ridiculous how much her parents want her to get a volleyball scholarship to Stanford or Harvard or whatever. It's not even volleyball season. Right now, she's doing "volleyball tutoring" or whatever the hell it's called. All she knows is that she's doing extra drills and crunches and sit ups and laps around the field when she could be sleeping.

She's already changed so she takes out her water bottle and downs a quarter of it in two seconds. Just then, she hears the familiar sound of Coach Prior's whistle and she knows that it's go time.

"Let's go, let's go, girls! Five laps around the track to start with, let's get a move on! Come on!" Coach Prior yells into the room.

Time for action.

...

"Did you see Ali? She just ran thirty laps. Holy cow I wish I could run as fast as her," Julianna Goodman says. The girls are walking back to the gym after running laps around the school for five minutes. Quinn can't help it; she's eavesdropping to the popular girls. It's the only she finds out about dirt around here; no one else wants to tell her, and she's too embarrassed to ask, they would all laugh in her face.

"Hey," says Talia Wood, "Did you hear about Sam Evans and Santana Lopez? I think they're going out now."

Yay. That's exactly what she needed to hear.

"Huh, yeah right," Julianna says. "I'm pretty sure Santana would've changed her status on Facebook by now." The girls laugh at her joke and Quinn smiles because that is so true...

That's why when they reach the locker room, she grabs her phone out of her bag and hides inside the bathroom stall. She turns her phone on, waiting until everything is done loading and clicks on the Facebook app. She goes to the search bar, typing in 'sam' and finds what she's looking for in a heartbeat.

His profile picture is really cute. It's a picture of him from camp last summer and he's wearing big yellow shades and a Chicago Bulls snapback, flashing duck lips and a cheesy peace sign at the lake or something.

It so went through Instagram.

She remembers how happy she felt when the notification came saying that Sam Evans had accepted her friend request; basically one of the best feelings in the world. She scrolls down to see if there's anything that says "in a relationship with Santana Lopez" but there's nada and she's so relieved, she heaves a sigh so loud it sounds like a fan blowing.

It's noon now and it's time to get home. After an entire morning of "run faster!" and "arms straight!", she's ready to collapse onto her bed. She follows the rest of the girls out of the locker room, being pushed and shoved by their huge bags, and not to mention hers as well. And like always, she's the last one out of the locker room but it feels nice to breathe the fresh air once she's outside... and without the gut wrenching thought of running 20 laps around the track.

She takes her phone out of her pocket and texts Grant.

_where are you? _

She's waiting for his reply, tapping her foot impatiently. Then, out of the blue, she sees Sam. Sam Evans. And, what's he doing? She squints her eyes for a better view. Oh... talking to some sophomore girls who swim at the pool. Figures. But why is he here? Sighing, she looks back to her phone.

_….. i can't. i'm at a friends house... i thought that frannie was picking you up. _

Did he not remember that Frannie was at her book discussion class? He's too forgetful to be her sibling, especially her older one.

_no, she's at her book club. _

_well hitch a ride from someone i can't come now. _

Good brother, huh? It's no surprise though. He's the type to do these things; blow off family and run off with his friends to have big barbeques and go skinny dipping in a lake with girls... and guys. He's always called the Wild One in the family, but no one really cares as long nothing interferes with everyone else's own plans.

Now, if only someone would give her a ride. That's not an easy task at all. Why? Maybe because nobody likes her. Half the people who were here before are already gone. She's still here, with no ride, and her house is about an hour away from the gym... by car. She can't frickin' walk all the way back home, it'll be neck breaking and she doesn't have the patience to do so; it'd take an hour and a half; the gym is in Toledo! And Toledo isn't very close to Lima. This is just her luck.

"Hey, Quinn. See you at school on Monday," says someone, a someone with a soft but firm voice, and female. She turns around to see who it is, and is surprised to see Rachel Berry.

"Oh, yeah. Bye, Rachel," she says. Rachel gives a final wave before going inside her dads' car. Why was Rachel Berry at a gym? Shouldn't she be in theatre class or whatnot. She hates being rude and stereotypical, but she can't help it. What do theatre nerds do at gyms... but then again, what do stupid losers do at gyms as well?

It's been about 15 minutes since they were let out, and Quinn is getting hungry. She hasn't eaten anything since 7:30am this morning, with her bowl of cereal and granola bar. _Ugh, when's lunch? _she thinks. Even she eventually gets home, she'll be all alone... again. Her parents won't get home until five because they both teach at the University of Toledo and it takes a lot of time from here to home. And who knows when Grant and Frannie are gonna get home. Grant's the wild college kid and Frannie's the graduating senior who sure as hell won't want to spend her last days at McKinley with her little sister.

Life sucks sometimes. But she has to admit that overall... it's the best thing ever, you know?

Suddenly, she feels a tap on her shoulder, and she's surprised because she's pretty sure that she's the only one left. But she still turns around to see who it is... and it's Sam. Sam Evans.

…..

Have you ever seen a deer in headlights? Their eyes are wild and their heart is pounding because something so shocking has overpowered them and they don't what to do but stare.

That's what she's doing right now, and so she decides to stop before Sam walks away.

"Hey," he says. He smiles. It's so frickin' adorable.

"Hey," she says back. She can hear the choir of angels above their heads.

"Well, I sorta saw you standing here before I got in my mom's car, and she did too... and she wanted to know if you needed a ride or not because... because you're sorta just standing here and staring... at nothing," he says, an awkward feeling slipping in.

"Oh... uh yeah. My brother was supposed to pick me up... but he's busy," she explains. Is he really offering her a ride?

"Me and my mom... we can drive you home. We live in the same neighborhood, right?" he asks.

"Uh, yeah. I think so," she says. They so do.

"Cool, I'll tell my mom right now," he says, and rushes back to the Prius parked by the side of the road. A middle aged blonde woman who looks exactly like her mom from the back talks with Sam, and nods. "Come on!"

_Oh my gosh_, she thinks. _This is really happening, this isn't my imagination. _He opens the door to the back seat for her and her heart is beating out of her chest. Sam Evans, the gentleman. Mr. and Mrs. Sam Evans. Quinn Evans. It all sounds too perfect.

"Thanks," she says.

"No problem."

…..

They're almost home when he speaks up after half an hour of silence that was followed by Sam's mom's riveting questions of "How are you?", "What's your favorite subject at school?", "How's your family?", and the all time favorite "Do you have a boyfriend?", whose answer was obviously no. His mom was then shushed by her son and the rest of the ride was awkward.

The car takes a sharp left turn on the corner of Sallanger and Upton, and everything veers to the left. Her bag is open, and a few things spill out because of that, and she sloppily picks up what she can find because Sam is opening his and she wants to listen.

"Hey Quinn..." he asks from the passenger seat.

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing next Friday?"

No way... is he asking her out on a date? Is this happening? Could all her church time and community service finally be paying off?

"Nothing," she answers.

"Oh good, because my buddies Finn and Puck are having an awesome party at Finn's place while his mom and stepdad are out. I was wondering..." _If you wanted to go with me?_, she thinks. "If you wanted to come." Close enough.

She's absolutely shocked because this is the first time that she's really been invited to a boy-girl party... and she's being invited to it by Sam Evans.

So this is what bliss feels like.

"I'd love to..." she whispers.

"Awesome."

"He asked you right on time because... I do believe this is your stop," his mom says. They're in front of her house, a brick beauty on the really nice side of Lima.

"Yeah... thanks for the ride, Mrs. Evans."

"Oh please... call me Michelle," she insists.

"Oh... thank you Michelle."

"You're very welcome, Quinn," she says.

"I guess I'll see you on Monday, Quinn," he says, waving goodbye to her as she steps out of the car.

"Yeah, I'll see you. Bye."

"Bye."

She's almost to the front door before she hears the slam of a car door and turns around to find Sam running towards her. Is he... running to kiss her? Naw, poochy lips aren't displayed currently. But he is carrying her backpack. She guesses she forgot to take it with her while she was grabbing her duffel bag.

"You left your bag," he says, handing it over to her. Staring straight into her eyes... God, his eyes are amazing.

"Thanks..."

They're left gazing into each other's eyes for about five seconds before he coughs.

"Yeah, you're welcome." He starts running back to his car. Out of his window, he yells, "See you!" and gives a wave goodbye. She returns the gesture and sits on her doorstep. What a day.

"And what are you doing?"

She looks up to see Grant walking towards her.

"What the hell? You were supposed to drive me home!"

"Yeah, I was busy," he says, defending his honor.

"Yeah, busy with coming home!" She's quite furious, but when she thinks about it, if he had driven her home, she wouldn't have gotten the invitation from Sam to Finn and Puck's party... and so she's not that mad.

"Anything happen while I was gone?" he asks.

"Naw, not much." She's a dirty liar.

"Fine, keep your secrets!" he says jokingly, grabbing her for a piggyback ride.

She climbs onto his back and he opens the door. They bobble around like something floating in water, waddling around the house.

"And you can keep yours."

^.^

_yeah so i hope you enjoyed that! i really try to make quinn and grant's relationship special because i never really had a real big brother and i've always thought that it would be awesome. and so yeah. :) thanks again for all of you guys' wonderful reviews; they warm my heart! please leave one if you liked this and leave one if you didn't! haha jest keeding but reviews are appreciated! (; thanks again you guys! i love you all 5ever (dat means i love you moar than 4ever)_


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